Fatboy Slim is the project of Norman Cook, who used to play bass in
Housemartins.
Discovered by the Chemical Brothers at the end of the
1980s, Cook suddenly became a protagonist of the dance scene under the monickers
Beats International (of Dub Be Good To Me fame),
Mighty Dub Kats, Pizzaman and Freakpower.
But it was under the new monicker Fatboy Slim that Cook
came to be recognized as one of the innovators of house music.
He started manufacturing singles that were weird collages of heterogeneous
sounds (and even noises) set to
dance beats and fragmented into jerky segments.
Better Living Through Chemistry (Skint, 1996), that collects the early
singles, reveals his broad musical roots, spanning and sampling
rock (Going Out Of My Head,
that steals the guitar riff from the Who's I Can't Explain),
funk (Everybody Needs a 303),
Latin (Punk To Funk),
jazz
and hip hop.
The production is always inventive and unpredictable.
The novelty of Santa Cruz (his first hit from 1995) was that it managed
to create and ambience out of a looping guitar riff drenched into
electronic winds.
The propulsive Song For Lindy peaks when staccato piano notes interact
with the tribal percussions.
Everybody Needs a 303 uses only electronic percussion to accelerate
dramatically into a frantic Brazilian dance.
Give the Po' Man A Break is state of the art in the way it blends straightforward pounding sections and syncopated crescendos.
10th & Crenshaw seems to simulate a dialogue between petulant electronic "voices".
First Down, rich in both funk and jazz overtones, is a fibrillating missile of electronic counterpoint fueled by loops of saxophone and drums.
Michael Jackson is the most eccentric piece, a layered tribal orgy
built out of vocal samples, riffs, noises and loops.

You've Come a Long Way Baby (Astralwerks, 1998) is not particularly
original, just better produced.
By the standards of the previous album, the Eastern-sounding hip-hop march of
Right Here Right Now
and the dynamite garage-rock of Soul Surfing
are pompous and magniloquent.
Gangster Trippin', a hip-hop with Caribbean overtones framed between horns-driven rhythm'n'blues fragments,
the hypnotic, driving, no-nonsense Build It Up,
the conventional pounding Love Island
keep the dancefloor
shaking.
Last but not least, the epic piano refrain of Praise You (possibly his
masterpiece) dives into languid soul (vocal part) and tribal acid-rock jamming
(instrumental part).
The most spectacular number,
Rockafeller Skank, mixes rock'n'roll rhythm,
Duan Eddy twang guitar, sardonic garage-rock vocals. Then it decays into
a hip-hop shuffle and then it picks up rock speed again, launching in a
final guitar-driven rave-up.

Halfway Between The Gutter And The Stars (Astralwerks, 2000) is a mere
repetition of Fatboy Slim's stereotypes. Whether tackling
soul (Demons and Love Life, with Macy Gray on vocals),
disco-music (Retox),
dub (Song For Shelter) or
funk (Talkin' About My Baby), he merely reenacts his own career.
The fun is gone and the time for nostalgic reminescing has come.
This album bridges the young party animal of
Star 69 and Weapon Of Choice and the wise street preacher of
Drop The Hate.